Greater New Orleans

RIP Jaran 'Julio' Green

Jaran 'Julio' Green was killed on March 26th while sitting in his car on Dumaine Street. He was 23 years old, father of a new born baby girl, lifelong resident of the Treme. He was my neighbor. He was loved by many many people as evidenced by the nightly musical tributes by grieving loved ones in front of his house this past week and a half. This video of his homegoing through the streets of the Sixth Ward was the last party thrown in his honor before he was laid to rest.

Commenters on nola.com leave many uncaring messages on news stories about young Black men killed in the streets of our city. Maybe they have racists beliefs about Black people. Maybe they feel helpless and mad and need to say something to make themselves believe it doesn't matter. Maybe they think if someone got killed in the streets, they more than likely had it coming to them. Maybe they think that it's just another statistic and that most people really don't care about this person. There are probably 20 other reasons they post cruel and insensitive comments. But I'm here to tell them all that they are wrong.

Jaran was very much loved. He was a family man. He loved the same young lady for seven years and produced a beautiful daughter last month whom he named after his mother. He was generous to his friends. And no matter what human mistakes he made, he didn't deserve to be slaughtered. He left behind a lot of people who have cried rivers for over a week now. And they gave him the most memorable homegoing a soul passing over could ever hope for. Because he mattered.